Southwest watch. Education.

In Name, Ex-chief To Be Staying On In New Lenox

September 13, 1995|By Teresa Puente, Tribune Staff Writer.

Rapidly growing New Lenox School District 122 gave a final going-away present to its old superintendent last weekend.

With more than 500 guests in attendance, New Lenox school officials christened Alex M. Martino Junior High School Sunday. The new school, at 731 E. Joliet Highway, had opened its doors to 760 students Aug. 25.

Its namesake is former Supt. Alex M. Martino, who retired this year after 30 years with the district.

The $8.5 million single-story school was financed through a bond issue passed in a referendum in 1993. It features a new computer lab, library, gymnasium and cafeteria with a stage area for student performances, said Tom Mullins, the new superintendent.

The district itself is seeing an increase in enrollment, Mullins said. More than 200 children have enrolled since July.

"We're growing like crazy," said Mullins, who attributes most of that to new housing development.

Mullins is no stranger to the school district. He was a former principal at Oster-Oakview Junior High School, which now serves 4th, 5th and 6th graders since the Martino School opened. He left the New Lenox district for Elementary School District 159 in the Matteson-Richton Park area, where he worked nine years, three as superintendent.

Ganging up: Concerned about the impact gangs may have in your neighborhood and schools? You may want to attend a one-day seminar Friday at Moraine Valley Community College. It's called Communities Under Siege: A Gang Awareness Seminar.

It is geared for law enforcement personnel, educators, social workers, community leaders and parents.

The presenters include George W. Knox, an associate professor of criminal justice at Chicago State University, where he is the director of the National Gang Crime Research Center. Knox has 20 years of professional experience researching gangs.

Edward Tromanhauser, co-author of "Schools Under Siege" and chairman of the criminal justice department at Chicago State, will also speak, as will Thomas F. McCurrie, managing editor of the Journal of Gang Research, and John A. Laskey, a criminal justice instructor at Morton College in Cicero.

The seminar, co-sponsored by the Palos Hills Police Department, will be in the Dorothy Menker Theater in the Fine and Performing Arts Center, 10900 S. 88th Ave., Palos Hills. The cost is $30 and registration will be accepted on site. For more information, call 708-974-5745, or to register, 708-974-2110.

Talking technology: If it were up to state school Supt. Joseph Spagnolo, all students would be carrying home laptop computers to do their homework and logging on the information superhighway to learn more than just reading, writing and arithmetic.

Spagnolo urged a group of suburban educators to not fear the inevitable change brought on by technology or the price tag of plugging computers in the classroom. Instead, he said school districts must work hand-in-hand with private businesses such as cable television and telephone companies that can provide the technology and resources without asking taxpayers to foot the bill.

"We won't be able to generate the money we need unless we involve the private sector," Spagnolo said during a recent meeting with the educational association of the Northwest Cook Chapter of Phi Delta Kappa.

This year, Illinois has allocated $15 million to improve technology in schools statewide. Prior to Spagnolo taking over last summer as the state's top school administrator, no funds were set aside for technology. But he said the money still doesn't come close to covering the cost for equipment, teacher training and integrating technology into the curriculum.

"We can't afford not to do it," he said. "If we expect technology to do what it is capable of doing, we must think outside the confines of the ordinary box."

Spagnolo said he also envisions using funds earmarked for textbooks, which are often outdated by the time they hit the classroom, to help pay for new technologies, including laptop computers that could be taken home by each student.

"I don't see machines replacing teachers," Spagnolo said. "Technology has to be to teachers what the hammer is to the carpenter. It's a tool."